“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Heb. 11:1
Faith, for the author of Hebrews, is not simply the ability to “see” things that are hidden to others. He is not saying that a faithful person can see ghosts or UFO’s – for example – that no one else sees try as they might. Instead, faith is the ability to recognize what God wants to do with our lives. It is catching glimpses of the Kingdom, the new creation that God is building through his people here on Earth. It is no surprise then that the author continues in verse 3:
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
It should be obvious to us that this verse is true of creation as we know it, but it is no less true of the new creation that began with the death and resurrection of Jesus. In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, and answered: "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you [plural]." Similarly, Jesus describes the Kingdom of God in Luke 13:18-21 as emerging like a tiny mustard seed planted in the ground, or like a bit of leaven kneaded into a lump of dough. Just as the “old creation” was shaped by God ex nihilo (out of nothing), so likewise the new Kingdom is being brought forth out of “nothing.” It is, as Jesus said, “not of this world”(John 17:16). It does not emerge by putting together the finest things that this world has to offer. As the Didache reminds us: “There are two paths, one of life and one of death, and the difference is great between the two paths.” This quotation, of course, is merely a paraphrase of Jesus’s teaching: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). However, due to fact that the Kingdom that God is building in our midst is one that is not of this world, God’s people must live as “strangers and foreigners on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). As the writer then proceeds to remind us, we are not “seeking a homeland here on earth,” but we are moving forward with the faith that catches glimpses of the Kingdom that God is establishing through us.
This Kingdom is being shaped today, by God, through the obedience of the Church. Obedience comes from the Latin root that means to hear, but obedience is more than simply hearing the voice of the Spirit, it is also acting upon what we have heard. Thus, given the picture that we have painted above, we can describe obedience to God as faith (as used by the author of Hebrews) plus action. Our obedience first requires that we discipline ourselves to hear God’s voice, through a hearty mix of Scripture-reading, prayer and silent meditation. It is essential that we have times set apart for these disciplines, but those times alone are not sufficient. We must learn, as Brother Laurence described in his classic book THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD, to practice these things as we go about our daily lives.
It would be easy for us to stop there and say that the emerging Kingdom is a merely matter of our personal devotion. But the Kingdom that God is molding is a corporate reality. Note that Jesus uses the plural you in the verse quoted above from Luke 17. Just as God raised up a people, the nation of Israel, in the O.T., so today he is once again raising up a “holy nation” (I Peter 2:9). “Once [we were] not a people,” says Peter, “but now [we are] a people,” thus reminding us again of the ex nihilo nature of the Kingdom of God. Following the author of Hebrews’s description of Abraham, we likewise are called to look “forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (11:10).
Paul, in I Corinthians 14:26, gives a description of how our personal devotional life interacts with the worship and direction of our local Church community. In this passage, he is instructing the Corinthians on how to worship together, and tells them that each person should come to the gathering with something that they (out of their devotional life) have been led to share. Thus, the flow of worship is guided by the Spirit, through the songs, prayers, requests, Scriptures, etc. that have been brought by individuals and from interaction that blossoms out of these “gifts.” In this image that Paul paints, we see that the sharing (koinonia, often translated as fellowship) described by John in his first epistle is not some abstract quality but the very lifeblood that energizes and directs the Church community. As an historical aside, it is interesting to note that the early Anabaptists also practiced a similar form of sharing worship – which they called the “Rule of Paul” (as described by John Howard Yoder in his book BODY POLITICS).
In conclusion, we are called by the Grace of God and the Power of the Spirit, to be obedient (faith and action) to God’s Kingdom-building work as both individuals and as a corporate body. Yes, as a result we will find ourselves as aliens and strangers in the world that we live, but as the writer of Hebrews tries to make clear to us, we have a host of examples who have gone before us and in whose footsteps we must follow. We begin by putting off the evil ways of the world that have bound us (Heb 12:1-2, Rom 12:2) and not only put off evil, but replace it with good, namely a life of prayerful devotion. Thus, in constantly submitting our own selfish wills to that of God, we undoubtedly will follow in the footsteps of the faithful ones of Israel and indeed in the footsteps of the greatest example of faith that we have: Jesus, who:
for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
May God grant us the mercy and the courage to be obedient!
